March 05, 2003 Music » Music Features

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Mad Vibrations 

Sector 9's music is hardly by the numbers

By
click to enlarge ALISON UNTERREINER - Sound Tribe Sector 9
  • Alison Unterreiner
  • Sound Tribe Sector 9
Sound Tribe Sector 9, often abbreviated by fans as Sector 9, refers to the ninth bak'tun in the Mayan Earth calendar. It's important to note that the Mayans did not group years in 10s as we do, but in 20s called k'atuns. Twenty k'atuns made one bak'tun. Bak'tuns are long, so most of history was recorded during the eighth, ninth and 10th bak'tuns. We currently live in the final k'atun of the 13th bak'tun. According to Zach Velmer, Sector 9's drummer, the ninth bak'tun, or Bak'tun 9, was a year when "mad shit was popping off." I've yet to read any proof of this, but don't let that discredit Velmer's account. His explanation was that during this time, the Mayan population thrived, as did the rest of Earth's population. As Velmer vaguely puts it, the earth was sending out "mad vibrations." When asked to elaborate on the term "vibrations," he explained that it was a time of great art and innovation. Sounds cool for the name of a band, but could there be more?

For the purpose of Sound Tribe Sector 9, it's a vibration of unity. At least, that's what they contend. And I'm not going to dispute it, because as a band, that's what they do. Sector 9 is an instrumental band that performs composed songs, including improvisations that don't deviate from the overall continuity of each song.

Labeling Sound Tribe Sector 9, whose albums include 1999's Interplanetary Escape Vehicle, 2000's Offered Schematics Suggesting Peace and last year's two-disc Seasons 01, is a precarious proposition. You wouldn't want to call them a jam band, for they defy one of the most typical jam band archetypes: the existence of a virtuoso performer. Also, their improvisations have more structure than those from most jam bands, because their songs are composed. You wouldn't want to define them as electronica because they use traditional instruments and they improvise. And you wouldn't want to label them jazz because, well, it's not jazz. Of course, now it sounds like Spinal Tap's "free-form jazz Odyssey," but don't worry -- it's not.

If you think labeling Sector 9's music is perplexing, check out their crowd. It's usually a mix of the jam band scene and the rave scene, as well as mid-20s professionals. It's as much of a conundrum as their sound.

In The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche said: "In song and dance, man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak and is on the way toward flying into the air, dancing. His very gestures express enchantment... a mystic feeling of oneness." Is that what draws crowds to Sound Tribe Sector 9? It's a stretch, but what the hell.

Music can be spiritual, especially if the people making it have those intentions in mind. And Sound Tribe Sector 9 certainly does have those intentions. "We played the House of Blues, and it was off the chain," exclaims Velmer. "The realization of the power of music and of that vibration, and to see people throw their hands in the air almost like they've been healed, like "Good Lord Almighty!' It's just amazing like that."

Velmer goes on to explain, in his own way, how different tones and modes correlated with different seasons and different feelings. He adds that those feelings and sounds -- or as he puts it, vibrations -- were connected cyclically.

Does Sound Tribe Sector 9's music suggest elevation in unity as much as the ninth bak'tun? I don't know. Judging by Mayan art from that period, I'm not so sure I want to find out. Some Mayan art portrays religious ceremonies where people were sacrificed in a number of gruesome rituals, in which DMT catheters and peyote-laced knives were used for incisions that were intended for a slow, surreal death. The priests, not wanting to be excluded from the fun, would eat peyote, pierce their tongues and slide long spiny cords through the hole. Another popular Mayan ritual was the tobacco-DMT enema (now there's a cosmic vibration). But somewhere something was lost, and the Mayans dispersed into the rain forests, leaving us with the ruins, the music of Sound Tribe Sector 9, and several audience members with studded tongue rings.

Sound Tribe Sector 9 will perform Thursday, March 6, at the Visulite Theatre. Call 704-358-9200 for more information.

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